Tips on Writing an Amazing Homepage that Really Converts

If you’re in the process of creating content for your website, one of your top priorities should be writing an appealing homage. The importance of websites’ homepage should not be underestimated since it’s responsible for creating the first impression.

Your homepage should intrigue the site’s visitors and invite them to explore more of your content and products. If you are struggling with writing content, check out these tips for making the writing of your homepage most effective.

Create a Strong Hero Message

A hero message is a phrase that usually appears at the top of the web page in a bold, large font. The main goal of a hero message in seizing website visitors' attention and inviting them to explore further. There are a lot of hero messages out there that communicate absolutely nothing of meaning or importance for an average user.

Your hero message should convey something important, special about your brand. You’ll need to get creative on this one. Keep your message clever, clear, and direct. Avoid generalizations that can be applied to any company in the field.

You can also extend your idea further by writing a sidekick message. Sidekick message is another piece of text that appears under your hero message. It’s much smaller in size and emphasis, but it’s a great way to provide more detailed and descriptive information.

Adobe did a great job creating their hero and sidekick messages. Notice how the hero message is inviting and descriptive, while the sidekick message provides more details and further describes the product.

Or let your website viewers create their own mission statement, just as UNICEF does.

Convey Your Value Proposition

Think of your value proposition as your company’s unique identifier that solves the problems your competitors can’t. While it’s not a single phrase or paragraph, your value proposition should be observed throughout the whole homepage’s copy. Tell your readers why you’re better than everyone else in the industry. List your benefits to clearly articulate why your visitors should buy from you.

Check out how the World Wildlife Fund incorporates its mission statement into the homepage. Also, notice how they use current events to highlight their efforts.

If the copywriting of your homepage is way off and confusing, your visitors will leave before they make it till the end of the page. Make sure you use grammar checkers like ProWritingAid and Proessaywriter to make your writing free of spelling and grammar mistakes.

Introduce the Problem and Solution

Once you’ve introduced your company and what it does, it’s time for you to explain to the prospects the problem you’ll help them solve. Firstly, think about how aware are your readers about their problem. Identify the extent to which you need to describe it.

The introduction of a problem should be followed by a solution. Don’t list the numerous features of your product. Instead, focus on your prospects’ biggest pain points. Lead with your benefits and explain how they can address given problems. Don’t describe the finest features of your product, rather, write specific benefit statements.

Check out Expedia’s website and notice how they use numbers. Facts and numbers are more persuasive than words, which leads us to the next point…

Provide Evidence and Keep it Concise

Make it clear what makes your product better, and be specific when describing your benefits. Imagine what information your site’s visitors need to make the desired decision. Instead of giving broad generalizations, use data or testimonials to support your claims. Include just a few of the best reviews on your homepage to indicate and build trust. Additionally, various recognitions and awards can inspire a good first impression.

Here is how Slack uses famous brands’ testimonials to build trust.

Write with respect to the fact that your readers have a short attention span. Your writing should be concise and focused. The ideal homepage’s word count ranges between 200 and 300 words. Break long text into smaller chunks. It’s better for both your readers and search engines. Save detailed descriptions for other pages of your website.

Dropbox’s homepage is a great example of how to keep your homepage content informative yet short and precise.

Use Keywords

Don’t forget about the importance of keywords when crafting your homepage. Design your keywords with customers in mind. The most important question you should ask yourself when drafting your keywords list is ‘what users should google for your content to come up?’

Learning actual search phrases users google is one great strategy. Also, it’s useful to find the most relevant and popular content on the subject and identify the keywords on those websites. Alternatively, you can use long-tail keywords that are very specific to your product or industry. Don’t use too many keywords to avoid over spamming. If your content is keyword-stuffed, Google can lower down your site’s ranking and users may find it hard to read.

Here are some tools such as Ahref, Google Keyword Planner, Keyword Tool, … helping you to find the right keywords.

Include a Powerful Call to Action

What are the specific actions you want your visitors to take once they’ve finished reading your homepage? Make sure the content of your homepage suggests what to do next. Your call to action can be an inviting link, button, or image. Your primary goal here is to encourage site visitors to dig deeper into your website and move them further into the sales funnel. Place your primary CTA above the fold to give prospects opportunities to click on it. A great example of a successfully employed CTA can be found on Netflix's homepage.

Final Thoughts

Yet not mentioned, the most important tip is not to rush with writing your homepage. Most site visitors will scroll down your homepage and glance through it quickly. It can take a lot of time and effort to come up with a single sentence or paragraph that captures the bottom line of your company best. Make grabbing the most of their attention your top priority as you develop the content of your homepage.

Along with these tips, combining with optimizing others of your homepage’s elements like speed, design, advanced search tool and images will make your homepage convert much better.